1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates generally to clips and clamps and, more specifically, to surgical clips adapted for use in retaining sutures.
2. Discussion of Related Art
Surgical clips are commonly formed with first and second telescoping members each attached to any elongate jaw of the clip. The telescoping members form a housing for a compression spring which biases the opposing jaws to a closed state. The jaws are commonly formed of hard plastic that are typically covered with soft elastomeric pads for atraumatically engaging and occulting blood vessels and other surgical elements such as sutures.
With the hard plastic jaws and soft pads, these clips are excellent candidates for a two-shot molding process where the hard plastic jaw is formed in a mold, and the soft pads are formed in a second mold. In this process, the harder material is molded and permitted to solidify. It then forms a part of the second mold which is used to form the soft pads directly on the hard plastic jaw. The second mold typically includes mold shutoffs which modify the first mold and facilitate formation of the second mold with the hard jaws.
In the past, use of these mold shutoffs has produced a void or slot at the proximal interface between the soft pad and the hard jaw. Sutures and other objects intended to be held by the clips have tended to fall into these shutoff voids severely complicating the clipping process.